playing the bass guitar

[Michael Angelo Batio]

I received a PM recently regarding playing bass. Here it is. Please post questions on the forum. I post responses as often as I can. Thank you.

-Michael, do you play a bass-guitar sometimes?

Yes. I enjoy playing bass guitar. I feel I play it like a "bass player" rather than a guitarist that picks up a bass and fly's up and down the neck playing scales.

-Which bass do you think is the best?

Dean basses of course!

-How do you feel about playing bass?

Bass guitar is extremely important in music for many reasons. The bass creates a groove and a "pocket" for the song to flow in. Great bass playing has it's own rhythm and melody adding life to a great piece of music.
For example, the bass part on the chorus of my song "Rain Forest" functions as a counter melody. It has a groove and a melodic flow that makes the section come to life.

Does thicker strings bother you?

No, not at all. In fact one of my guitars (in my house) is set up with extremely high action and very heavy gauge strings. I use it just to practice on. It is a "'warm up" guitar. Regarding playing bass- the longer scale length of the neck or the thickness of the strings is not a problem for me. I apply the same principles technically on bass that I do on guitar. Good hand positioning, economy of motion, etc... Most of the time I play bass with a pick although I can play using my fingers. It depends on what I want the part to sound like. In conclusion, great bass guitar playing is much more than a guitarist picking up a bass and playing. It is a great instrument in it's own right and has an important place in music.

[Ernesto]

That was a good statement, ok so now i know the trick of your practicing now i have the one of the answers why you flash on the arpegios.
Thanks to reveal one of your secrets

[HlynurStef]

isn't it difficult to play with a high action?

[Blondie]

I think that's the reason the practice-guitar is setup like that

[Luke]

If you warm up on acoustic then go to electric it makes it much easyer to get straight into playing i think.

[Ernesto]

Yes it is diff. to practice with high action of coirse but by time you getting use to then will be more comfortable, when i started tappings with two hands i got and acoustic beat up guitar and playing this one with my 8 fingers of course was very diff and it was hurting my hands but i need to get some endurance and get use to it but actually the secret of the two hands is to have a very low low action and course the independency

[NotGuest]

Along w/ high action and fatty strings, tune the guitar up a few steps to make it a good warm up tool.

[Ryan]

IF you've played an acoustic guitar before you even looked at an electric, most people find that electric guitar is a breeze, because of smaller gauge strings, smaller body's etc, at least this is what i have heard anyways.

[Michael Angelo Batio]

Playing an Acoustic guitar first is a very good point. My personal feeling is that Electric and Acoustic guitars are two very different instruments. I practice the Acoustic very differently than I practice the Electric guitar. I am a good finger style Acoustic guitarist and have worked hard to get a nice full, round sound when picking. Fast Alternate picking is very difficult on Acoustic so I have worked on that as well.

[Dreamer]

Sorry for bothering you with PM, and thank you thousand times for the answer!

I'm so glad that you take the bass seriously. 'Cause, many guitarists keep saying it's too easy to play and when (or if) they play it sometimes, they, like you said, play it as guitarists, not even trying to understand the way bassists are playing it.

My opinion is that I can make bass too easy to play if I'm not interested in making dynamic transitions or adding a couple of solo parts. Instead, I just keep picking G, D, A, E strings with simple and constant rythm. But, that would bore me to hell. So, I'm trying to sound pretty much like John Myung.